112-684: The Santa Compaña (Galician for "Holy Company") is a deep-rooted mythical belief in rural northwest of Iberia : Galicia , Asturias ( Spain ) and Northern Portugal . It is the Iberian version of the pan-European mythical motif known as the Wild Hunt . It is also known under the names of " Estadea ", " Estantiga' " ( estantigua in Spanish, from Latin hostis antiquus , meaning "ancient host "), " Rolda ", " As da nuite " (The Night Ones), " Pantalla ", " Avisóns ", " Pantaruxada "; all of which are terms that denote
224-613: A moral , fable , allegory or a parable , or collection of traditional stories, understood to be false. It came eventually to be applied to similar bodies of traditional stories among other polytheistic cultures around the world. Thus "mythology" entered the English language before "myth". Johnson 's Dictionary , for example, has an entry for mythology, but not for myth. Indeed, the Greek loanword mythos ( pl. mythoi ) and Latinate mythus (pl. mythi ) both appeared in English before
336-449: A "disease of language". He speculated that myths arose due to the lack of abstract nouns and neuter gender in ancient languages. Anthropomorphic figures of speech , necessary in such languages, were eventually taken literally, leading to the idea that natural phenomena were in actuality conscious or divine. Not all scholars, not even all 19th-century scholars, accepted this view. Lucien Lévy-Bruhl claimed that "the primitive mentality
448-419: A belief that is not true. Instead, the veracity of a myth is not a defining criterion. Myths are often endorsed by secular and religious authorities and are closely linked to religion or spirituality . Many societies group their myths, legends, and history together, considering myths and legends to be factual accounts of their remote past. In particular, creation myths take place in a primordial age when
560-449: A book on the comparative study of mythology and religion—argued that humans started out with a belief in magical rituals; later, they began to lose faith in magic and invented myths about gods, reinterpreting their rituals as religious rituals intended to appease the gods. Historically, important approaches to the study of mythology have included those of Vico , Schelling , Schiller , Jung , Freud , Lévy-Bruhl , Lévi-Strauss , Frye ,
672-652: A chase led by a mythological figure escorted by a ghostly or supernatural group of hunters engaged in pursuit. The leader of the hunt is often a named figure associated with Odin in Germanic legends, but may variously be a historical or legendary figure like Theodoric the Great , the Danish king Valdemar Atterdag , the dragon slayer Sigurd , the Welsh psychopomp Gwyn ap Nudd , biblical figures such as Herod , Cain , Gabriel , or
784-470: A curse and a pack of demons deep in the woods. He might also have asked God to let him hunt until Judgement Day , as has ewiger Jäger (the eternal hunter). The majority of the tales deal with some person encountering the Wild Hunt. If this person stands up against the hunters, he will be punished. If he helps the hunt, he will be awarded money, gold, or, most often, a leg of a slain animal or human, which
896-513: A drink, only to steal Dando's game and then Dando himself, with his dogs giving chase. The sight was long claimed to have been seen in the area. Another legend recounted how King Herla, having visited the Fairy King , was warned not to step down from his horse until the greyhound he carried jumped down; he found that three centuries had passed during his visit, and those of his men who dismounted crumbled to dust; he and his men are still riding, because
1008-477: A failed or obsolete mode of thought, often by interpreting myth as the primitive counterpart of modern science within a unilineal framework that imagined that human cultures are travelling, at different speeds, along a linear path of cultural development. One of the dominant mythological theories of the latter 19th century was nature mythology , the foremost exponents of which included Max Müller and Edward Burnett Tylor . This theory posited that "primitive man"
1120-564: A giant hunting called "The Wild Hunt", after the legend of " Herne , god of the Hunt". In King Vold , Hellboy encounters "King Vold, the flying huntsman" whose figure is based on the Norwegian folktale of "The Flying Huntsman (headless King Volmer and his hounds)" according to Mignola. The Wild Hunt was adapted for the Grace Note portion of The Case Files of Lord El-Melloi II anime adaptation with
1232-446: A methodology that allows us to understand the complexity of the myth and its manifestations in contemporary times, is justified. Because "myth" is sometimes used in a pejorative sense, some scholars have opted for "mythos" instead. "Mythos" now more commonly refers to its Aristotelian sense as a "plot point" or to a body of interconnected myths or stories, especially those belonging to a particular religious or cultural tradition. It
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#17330846927511344-535: A myth can be highly controversial. Many religious adherents believe that the narratives told in their respective religious traditions are historical without question, and so object to their identification as myths while labelling traditional narratives from other religions as such. Hence, some scholars may label all religious narratives as "myths" for practical reasons, such as to avoid depreciating any one tradition because cultures interpret each other differently relative to one another. Other scholars may abstain from using
1456-438: A one-wheeled cart. In parts of Småland , it appears that people believed that Odin hunted with large birds when the dogs got tired. When it was needed, he could transform a bevy of sparrows into an armed host. If houses were built on former roads, they could be burnt down, because Odin did not change his plans if he had formerly travelled on a road there. Not even charcoal kilns could be built on disused roads, because if Odin
1568-410: A parish beginning at midnight wearing white, hooded cloaks. The procession is led by a living person (usually a parishioner of a particular church) carrying a cross or a cauldron of holy water (sometimes they carry both), followed by several of the souls of the dead holding lit candles. Although these souls are not always seen, the popular legend claims that the scent of melted wax can be detected on
1680-486: A pattern of behavior to be imitated, testifies to the efficacy of ritual with its practical ends and establishes the sanctity of cult . Another definition of myth comes from myth criticism theorist and professor José Manuel Losada . According to Cultural Myth Criticism, the studies of myth must explain and understand "myth from inside", that is, only "as a myth". Losada defines myth as "a functional, symbolic and thematic narrative of one or several extraordinary events with
1792-536: A poetic description of the sea as "raging" was eventually taken literally and the sea was then thought of as a raging god. Some thinkers claimed that myths result from the personification of objects and forces. According to these thinkers, the ancients worshiped natural phenomena, such as fire and air, gradually deifying them. For example, according to this theory, ancients tended to view things as gods, not as mere objects. Thus, they described natural events as acts of personal gods, giving rise to myths. According to
1904-621: A scholarly term for "[a] traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or explaining a natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events." The Greek term mythología was then borrowed into Late Latin , occurring in the title of Latin author Fulgentius ' 5th-century Mythologiæ to denote what is now referred to as classical mythology —i.e., Greco-Roman etiological stories involving their gods. Fulgentius' Mythologiæ explicitly treated its subject matter as allegories requiring interpretation and not as true events. The Latin term
2016-565: A step further, incorporating the study of the transcendent dimension (its function, its disappearance) to evaluate the role of myth as a mirror of contemporary culture. Cultural myth criticism Cultural myth criticism, without abandoning the analysis of the symbolic , invades all cultural manifestations and delves into the difficulties in understanding myth today. This cultural myth criticism studies mythical manifestations in fields as wide as literature , film and television , theater , sculpture , painting , video games , music , dancing ,
2128-436: A transcendent, sacred and supernatural referent; that lacks, in principle, historical testimony; and that refers to an individual or collective, but always absolute, cosmogony or eschatology". According to the hylistic myth research by assyriologist Annette Zgoll and classic philologist Christian Zgoll , "A myth can be defined as an Erzählstoff [narrative material] which is polymorphic through its variants and – depending on
2240-406: A variety of facets. These include his long white beard and his gray horse for nightly rides. "As far as practitioners of nature spiritualities are concerned, the Wild Hunt offers an initiation into the wild and an opening up of the senses; a sense of dissolution of self in confrontation with fear and death, an exposure to a 'whirlwind pulse that runs through life'. In short, engagement with the Hunt
2352-576: A world of the remote past, very different from that of the present. Definitions of "myth" vary to some extent among scholars, though Finnish folklorist Lauri Honko offers a widely-cited definition: Myth, a story of the gods, a religious account of the beginning of the world , the creation , fundamental events, the exemplary deeds of the gods as a result of which the world, nature and culture were created together with all parts thereof and given their order, which still obtains. A myth expresses and confirms society's religious values and norms, it provides
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#17330846927512464-479: Is a bid to restore a reciprocity and harmony between humans and nature." Various practitioners of the contemporary pagan religion of Wicca have drawn upon folklore involving the Wild Hunt to inspire their own rites. In their context, the leader of the Wild Hunt is the goddess Hecate . The anthropologist Susan Greenwood provided an account of one such Wild Hunt ritual performed by a modern Pagan group in Norfolk during
2576-421: Is a condition of the human mind and not a stage in its historical development." Recent scholarship, noting the fundamental lack of evidence for "nature mythology" interpretations among people who actually circulated myths, has likewise abandoned the key ideas of "nature mythology". Frazer saw myths as a misinterpretation of magical rituals, which were themselves based on a mistaken idea of natural law. This idea
2688-465: Is a form of understanding and telling stories that are connected to power, political structures, and political and economic interests. These approaches contrast with approaches, such as those of Joseph Campbell and Eliade , which hold that myth has some type of essential connection to ultimate sacred meanings that transcend cultural specifics. In particular, myth was studied in relation to history from diverse social sciences. Most of these studies share
2800-559: Is also known among the Sorbs and among the South Slavic Slovenes Divja Jaga ( Slovene : "the wild hunting party" or "wild hunt"). However, scholars of Slavic folklore have noted it is a motif of foreign, specifically German(ic), origin. In Belarusian, it is called Дзiкае Паляванне (Belarusian: "wild hunt"). As Belarus used to be part of Poland, the motif's presence likely came from there as an intermediary. In Italy , it
2912-411: Is based on Gottfried August Bürger 's ballad Der wilde Jäger . In act 1 of Richard Wagner 's 1870 opera Die Walküre , Siegmund relates that he has been pursued by “Das wütende Heer”, which is an indication to the audience that it is Wotan himself who has called up the storm which has driven him (Siegmund) to Hunding's dwelling. The subject of Stan Jones ' American country song " Ghost Riders in
3024-899: Is called Caccia Morta ("Dead Hunt"), Caccia infernale (" infernal hunt ") or Caccia selvaggia ("Wild Hunt"); in Galician Estantiga (from Hoste Antiga "the old army") or Hostia ("Army") or in Spanish Compaña and Santa Compaña ("troop, company") in Galicia ; Güestia in Asturias ; Hueste de Ánimas ("troop of ghosts") in León ; and Hueste de Guerra ("war company") or Cortejo de Gente de Muerte ("deadly retinue") in Extremadura . "Another class of specters will prove more fruitful for our investigation: they, like
3136-622: Is known as Cŵn Annwn ( Welsh : "hounds of Annwn "). In France, the "Host" was known in Latin sources as Familia Hellequini and in Old French as Maisnie Hellequin (the "household or retinue of Hellequin"). The Old French name Hellequin was probably borrowed from Middle English Herla king ( Old English * Her(e)la-cyning ) by the Romance-speaking Norman invaders of Britain . Other similar figures appear in
3248-428: Is led by a living person (usually a parishioner of a particular church) carrying a cross or a cauldron of holy water (sometimes they carry both), followed by several of the souls of the dead holding lit candles. According to scholar Susan Greenwood, the Wild Hunt "primarily concerns an initiation into the wild, untamed forces of nature in its dark and chthonic aspects." Metamorphoses, cavalcades, ecstasies, followed by
3360-423: Is nobody's truth. Myths are somebody's truth." One theory claims that myths are distorted accounts of historical events. According to this theory, storytellers repeatedly elaborate upon historical accounts until the figures in those accounts gain the status of gods. For example, the myth of the wind-god Aeolus may have evolved from a historical account of a king who taught his people to use sails and interpret
3472-403: Is often cursed in a way that makes it impossible to be rid of it. In this case, the person has to find a priest or magician able to ban it or trick the Wild Hunt into taking the leg back by asking for salt, which the hunt can not deliver. In many versions, a person staying right in the middle of the road during the encounter is safe. In Scandinavia, the leader of the hunt was Odin and the event
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3584-472: Is often thought to differ from genres such as legend and folktale in that neither are considered to be sacred narratives. Some kinds of folktales, such as fairy stories , are not considered true by anyone, and may be seen as distinct from myths for this reason. Main characters in myths are usually gods , demigods or supernatural humans, while legends generally feature humans as their main characters. Many exceptions and combinations exist, as in
3696-446: Is sometimes an undead noble, most often called Count Hackelberg or Count Ebernburg, who is cursed to hunt eternally because of misbehaviour during his lifetime, and in some versions died from injuries of a slain boar's tusk. Dogs and wolves were generally involved. In some areas, werewolves were depicted as stealing beer and sometimes food in houses. Horses were portrayed as two-, three-, six-, and eight-legged, often with fiery eyes. In
3808-614: Is sometimes known as "mythography", a term also used for a scholarly anthology of myths or of the study of myths generally. Key mythographers in the Classical tradition include: Other prominent mythographies include the thirteenth-century Prose Edda attributed to the Icelander Snorri Sturluson , which is the main surviving survey of Norse Mythology from the Middle Ages. Jeffrey G. Snodgrass (professor of anthropology at
3920-510: Is sometimes used specifically for modern, fictional mythologies, such as the world building of H. P. Lovecraft . Mythopoeia ( mytho- + -poeia , 'I make myth') was termed by J. R. R. Tolkien , amongst others, to refer to the "conscious generation" of mythology. It was notoriously also suggested, separately, by Nazi ideologist Alfred Rosenberg . Comparative mythology is a systematic comparison of myths from different cultures. It seeks to discover underlying themes that are common to
4032-475: Is to visit the homes where death is due. According to popular belief, apart from the living procession leader, the Santa Compaña can't be seen but can be felt, eliciting a shiver or shudder as it passes, accompanied with a sensation of intense danger. It is also believed that those who can see the Santa Compaña are people who, when baptised by the priest of their parish, were mistakenly anointed with holy oil for
4144-571: The Iliad , Odyssey and Aeneid . Moreover, as stories spread between cultures or as faiths change, myths can come to be considered folktales, their divine characters recast as either as humans or demihumans such as giants , elves and faeries . Conversely, historical and literary material may acquire mythological qualities over time. For example, the Matter of Britain (the legendary history of Great Britain, especially those focused on King Arthur and
4256-452: The Republic . His critique was primarily on the grounds that the uneducated might take the stories of gods and heroes literally. Nevertheless, he constantly referred to myths throughout his writings. As Platonism developed in the phases commonly called Middle Platonism and neoplatonism , writers such as Plutarch , Porphyry , Proclus , Olympiodorus , and Damascius wrote explicitly about
4368-842: The Theologia Mythologica (1532). The first modern, Western scholarly theories of myth appeared during the second half of the 19th century —at the same time as "myth" was adopted as a scholarly term in European languages. They were driven partly by a new interest in Europe's ancient past and vernacular culture, associated with Romantic Nationalism and epitomised by the research of Jacob Grimm (1785–1863). This movement drew European scholars' attention not only to Classical myths, but also material now associated with Norse mythology , Finnish mythology , and so forth. Western theories were also partly driven by Europeans' efforts to comprehend and control
4480-611: The Colorado State University ) has termed India's Bhats as mythographers. Myth criticism is a system of anthropological interpretation of culture created by French philosopher Gilbert Durand . Scholars have used myth criticism to explain the mythical roots of contemporary fiction, which means that modern myth criticism needs to be interdisciplinary . Professor Losada offers his own methodologic, hermeneutic and epistemological approach to myth. While assuming mythopoetical perspectives, Losada's Cultural Myth Criticism takes
4592-623: The Devil's Dandy Dogs (in Cornwall ), Gabriel's Hounds (in northern England), and Ghost Riders (in North America). In Scandinavia, the Wild Hunt is known as Oskoreia (commonly interpreted as 'The Asgard Ride'), and as Oensjægeren ('Odin's Hunters'). The names Åsgårdsrei (' Asgard Ride' as attested in parts of Trøndelag ), Odens jakt and Vilda jakten ( Swedish : 'the hunt of Odin ' and 'wild hunt') are also attested. At
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4704-425: The horn gesture (extending the index and little fingers with the rest of the fingers folded inwards) or the fig sign (which consists of closing the fist and putting the thumb between the index and middle fingers). The person leading the procession can be a man or a woman—this depends on whether the patron saint of the parish is male or female. The Santa Compaña's purpose is to announce death and its primary mission
4816-506: The 'Host' variants, principally found in southern Germany, a man went out in front, warning people to get out of the streets before the coming of the Host's armed men, who were sometimes depicted as doing battle with one another. A feature peculiar to the 'Hunt' version, generally encountered in northern Germany, was the pursuit and capture of one or more female demons, or a hart in some versions, while some others did not have prey at all. Sometimes,
4928-576: The 'Hunt', and parts of the north know the 'Host'. It was also known in Germany as the Wildes Heer ('Wild Army'), its leader was given various identities, including Wodan (or " Woden "), Knecht Ruprecht (compare Krampus ), Berchtold (or Berchta ), and Holda (or "Holle"). The Wild Hunt is also known from post-medieval folklore. In England, it was known as Herlaþing ( Old English : ' Herla 's assembly'), Woden's Hunt , Herod's Hunt , Cain's Hunt ,
5040-408: The 4th and 5th episodes where Lord El-Melloi II (voiced by Daisuke Namikawa ) helps a fellow magus teacher by the name of Wills Pelham Codrington (voiced by Tomoaki Maeno ) in a case involving his father's home where the leylines have become unstable. It is there they encounter Black Dogs, the incarnation of lightning who have been killing people in the vicinity. With the help of his allies, Wills, and
5152-458: The Devil , or an unidentified lost soul. The hunters are generally the souls of the dead or ghostly dogs, sometimes fairies , valkyries , or elves . Seeing the Wild Hunt was thought to forebode some catastrophe such as war or plague, or at best the death of the one who witnessed it. People encountering the Hunt might also be abducted to the underworld or the fairy kingdom. In some instances, it
5264-618: The French folklore, such as Le Grand-Veneur , a hunter who chased with dogs in the forest of Fontainebleau , and a Poitou tradition where a hunter who has faulted by hunting on Sunday is condemned to redeem himself by hunting during the night, along with its French Canadian version the Chasse-galerie . Among West Slavs , it is known as divoký hon or štvaní ( Czech : "wild hunt", "baiting"), dzëwô/dzëkô jachta ( Kashubian : "wild hunt"), Dziki Gon or Dziki Łów ( Polish ). It
5376-579: The Internet and other artistic fields . Myth criticism, a discipline that studies myths (mythology contains them, like a pantheon its statues), is by nature interdisciplinary: it combines the contributions of literary theory, the history of literature, the fine arts and the new ways of dissemination in the age of communication. Likewise, it undertakes its object of study from its interrelation with other human and social sciences, in particular sociology , anthropology and economics . The need for an approach, for
5488-650: The Mediterranean regions, "at least not easily". An abundance of different tales of the Wild Hunt has been recorded in Germany. The leader, often called der Schimmelreiter , is generally identified with the god Wotan , but sometimes with a feminine figure: the wife of Wotan, Holda ('the friendly one'; also Holle or Holt), Fru Waur, or Fru Gode in Northern Germany; or Perchta (the bright one; also Berchta, Berhta or Berta) in Southern Germany. The leader also
5600-440: The Santa Compaña pass by must quickly draw "Solomon's Circle" on the ground using chalk (a circle with Seal of Solomon inside a six-pointed star, which can be changed into a cross) and enter it, or lie face-down until the procession passes. Another way to evade the Santa Compaña is to tie a black cat in the middle of the Santa Compaña's path and quickly run away from it, or to perform diverse warding symbols with both hands such as
5712-413: The Santa Compaña, as the curse that forces them to lead the procession puts them into a trance every midnight. The procession ends before daybreak and the living leader of the procession returns to their bed with no memory of what occurred, but will awake the next morning still weary, as though they did not get adequate rest. This person can only be freed of the curse if they come across another person during
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#17330846927515824-455: The Sky " of 1948, which tells of cowboys chasing the Devil 's cattle through the night sky, resembles the European myth. Swedish folk musician The Tallest Man on Earth released an album in 2010 entitled The Wild Hunt , and in 2013 the black metal band Watain , also Swedish, released an album with the same title . German folk band Versengold released the song "Die wilde Jagt" in 2021, as
5936-553: The Soviet school, and the Myth and Ritual School . The critical interpretation of myth began with the Presocratics . Euhemerus was one of the most important pre-modern mythologists. He interpreted myths as accounts of actual historical events, though distorted over many retellings. Sallustius divided myths into five categories: Plato condemned poetic myth when discussing education in
6048-662: The Welsh Hounds of Annwn and the Breton Celtic westward processions of the dead to the End of the World . It is equivalent to the Irish Banshee and Breton Ankou . Mythology Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to
6160-451: The Wild Hunt was first documented by the German folklorist Jacob Grimm who first published it in his 1835 book Deutsche Mythologie . It was in this work that he popularized the term Wilde Jagd ("Wild Hunt") for the phenomenon. Grimm's methodological approach was rooted in the idea, common in nineteenth-century Europe, that modern folklore represented a fossilized survival of the beliefs of
6272-597: The Wild Hunt, with Odin leading the hunting party. This painting is featured on the cover of Bathory 's 1988 album, Blood Fire Death . The Wild Hunt is the subject of Transcendental Étude No. 8 in C minor, " Wilde Jagd " (Wild Hunt) by Franz Liszt, and appears in Karl Maria von Weber 's 1821 opera Der Freischütz and in Arnold Schoenberg 's oratorio Gurre-Lieder of 1911. César Franck 's orchestral tone poem Le Chasseur maudit ( The Accursed Huntsman )
6384-449: The appointment of a disastrous abbot for the monastery, Henry d'Angely, in 1127: Many men both saw and heard a great number of huntsmen hunting. The huntsmen were black, huge, and hideous, and rode on black horses and on black he-goats, and their hounds were jet black, with eyes like saucers, and horrible. This was seen in the very deer park of the town of Peterborough, and in all the woods that stretch from that same town to Stamford, and in
6496-450: The assumption that history and myth are not distinct in the sense that history is factual, real, accurate, and truth, while myth is the opposite. Wild Hunt The Wild Hunt is a folklore motif occurring across various northern, western and eastern European societies, appearing in the religions of the Germans, Celts, and Slavs (motif E501 per Thompson ). Wild Hunts typically involve
6608-422: The breeze as they pass to warn of their presence. The living leader of the procession is compelled by a supernatural force (in this case, a mysterious curse) to go out every night and walk by towns, villages and forests; but will have no recollection of it the following day. By the same token, because the living person is unaware of what he/she is doing, there is no chance that they will renounce their duty in leading
6720-453: The castles of Rodenstein and Schnellerts and to the Odenwald. In the influential book Kultische Geheimbünde der Germanen (1934), Otto Höfler argued that the German motifs of the "Wild Hunt" should be interpreted as the spectral troops led by the god Wuotan which had a ritualistic counterpart in the living bands of ecstatic warriors (Old Norse berserkir ), allegedly in a cultic union with
6832-465: The concept of the Oedipus complex in his 1899 The Interpretation of Dreams . Jung likewise tried to understand the psychology behind world myths. Jung asserted that all humans share certain innate unconscious psychological forces, which he called archetypes . He believed similarities between the myths of different cultures reveals the existence of these universal archetypes. The mid-20th century saw
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#17330846927516944-577: The cultures, stories and religions they were encountering through colonialism . These encounters included both extremely old texts such as the Sanskrit Rigveda and the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh , and current oral narratives such as mythologies of the indigenous peoples of the Americas or stories told in traditional African religions . The intellectual context for nineteenth-century scholars
7056-438: The dead warriors of the past. Hans Peter Duerr (1985) noted that for modern readers, it "is generally difficult to decide, on the basis of the sources, whether what is involved in the reports about the appearance of the Wild Hunt is merely a demonic interpretation of natural phenomenon, or whether we are dealing with a description of ritual processions of humans changed into demons." Historian Ronald Hutton noted that there
7168-439: The distant past. In developing his idea of the Wild Hunt, he mixed together recent folkloric sources with textual evidence dating to the medieval and early modern periods. This approach came to be criticized within the field of folkloristics during the 20th century as more emphasis was placed on the "dynamic and evolving nature of folklore". Grimm interpreted the Wild Hunt phenomenon as having pre-Christian origins, arguing that
7280-527: The egress of the soul in the shape of an animal—these are different paths to a single goal. Between animals and souls, animals and the dead, animals and the beyond, there exists a profound connection. The role of Wotan's Wild Hunt during the Yuletide period has been theorized to have influenced the development of the Dutch Christmas figure Sinterklaas , and by extension his American counterpart Santa Claus , in
7392-493: The first example of "myth" in 1830. The main characters in myths are usually non-humans, such as gods , demigods , and other supernatural figures. Others include humans, animals, or combinations in their classification of myth. Stories of everyday humans, although often of leaders of some type, are usually contained in legends , as opposed to myths. Myths are sometimes distinguished from legends in that myths deal with gods, usually have no historical basis, and are set in
7504-638: The first single from their 2022 album Was kost die Welt . The Wild Hunt appears in Marvel Comics , primarily the Thor series, and is led by Malekith the Accursed , the Dark Elf King of Svartalfheim and one of Thor's archenemies. In Mike Mignola 's comic book series Hellboy , two versions of the Wild Hunt myth are present. In The Wild Hunt , the hero receives an invitation from British noblemen to partake in
7616-402: The foremost functions of myth is to establish models for behavior and that myths may provide a religious experience. By telling or reenacting myths, members of traditional societies detach themselves from the present, returning to the mythical age, thereby coming closer to the divine. Honko asserted that, in some cases, a society reenacts a myth in an attempt to reproduce the conditions of
7728-407: The forest turned silent and only a whining sound and dog barks could be heard. In western Sweden and sometimes in the east as well, it has been said that Odin was a nobleman or even a king who had hunted on Sundays and therefore was doomed to hunt down and kill supernatural beings until the end of time. According to certain accounts, Odin does not ride, but travels in a wheeled vehicle, specifically
7840-491: The furious host: the wild hunter passes into the wood-wife, Wôden into Frau Gaude ." He added his opinion that this female figure was Woden's wife. Discussing martial elements of the Wild Hunt, Grimm commented that "it marches as an army, it portends the outbreak of war." He added that a number of figures that had been recorded as leading the hunt, such as " Wuotan, Huckelbernd, Berholt, bestriding their white war-horse , armed and spurred, appear still as supreme directors of
7952-492: The game of ninepins , the chief employments of ancient heroes: an array which, less tied down to a definite time, explains more the natural phenomenon." He believed that under the influence of Christianisation, the story was converted from being that of a "solemn march of gods" to being "a pack of horrid spectres, dashed with dark and devilish ingredients". A little earlier, in 1823, Felicia Hemans records this legend in her poem The Wild Huntsman , linking it here specifically to
8064-456: The greyhound has yet to jump down. The myth of the Wild Hunt has through the ages been modified to accommodate other gods and folk heroes, among them King Arthur and, more recently, in a Dartmoor folk legend , Sir Francis Drake . At Cadbury Castle in Somerset, an old lane near the castle was called King Arthur's Lane and even in the 19th century, the idea survived that on wild winter nights
8176-618: The hunt is particularly associated with Wistman's Wood . The Santa Compaña (known also in Galician as: Rolda , As da nuite , Pantalla , Avisóns or Pantaruxada ; in Asturian as Güestia , Güeste , Güestida or Güéstiga ; in Spanish as Estantigua ) is a mythical belief in Northwestern Spain and northern Portugal which consists in a procession of ghosts or souls. The procession
8288-538: The hunters are rather from a faery otherworld, where the Wild Hunt was the hosting of the fairies ; its leaders also varied, but they included Gwydion , Gwynn ap Nudd , King Arthur , Nuada , King Herla , Woden , the Devil and Herne the Hunter . Many legends are told of their origins, as in that of "Dando and his dogs" or "the dandy dogs": Dando, wanting a drink but having exhausted what his huntsmen carried, declared he would go to hell for it. A stranger came and offered
8400-423: The ignes fatui, include unchristened babes , but instead of straggling singly on the earth as fires, they sweep through forest and air in whole companies with a horrible din. This is the widely spread legend of the furious host , the furious hunt , which is of high antiquity, and interweaves itself, now with gods, and now with heroes. Look where you will, it betrays its connexion with heathenism." The concept of
8512-423: The influential development of a structuralist theory of mythology , led by Lévi-Strauss . Strauss argued that myths reflect patterns in the mind and interpreted those patterns more as fixed mental structures, specifically pairs of opposites (good/evil, compassionate/callous), rather than unconscious feelings or urges. Meanwhile, Bronislaw Malinowski developed analyses of myths focusing on their social functions in
8624-663: The king and his hounds could be heard rushing along with it. In certain parts of Britain, the hunt is said to be that of hell-hounds chasing sinners or the unbaptized. In Devon these are known as Yeth (Heath) or Wisht Hounds, in Cornwall Dando and his Dogs or the Devil and his Dandy Dogs, in Wales the Cwn Annwn, the Hounds of Hell, and in Somerset as Gabriel Ratchets or Retchets (dogs). In Devon
8736-705: The knights of the Round Table ) and the Matter of France , seem distantly to originate in historical events of the 5th and 8th centuries, respectively, and became mythologised over the following centuries. In colloquial use, "myth" can also be used of a collectively held belief that has no basis in fact, or any false story. This usage, which is often pejorative , arose from labelling the religious myths and beliefs of other cultures as incorrect, but it has spread to cover non-religious beliefs as well. As commonly used by folklorists and academics in other relevant fields, such as anthropology , "myth" has no implication whether
8848-459: The late 1990s, stating that they used this mythology "as a means of confronting the dark of nature as a process of initiation." Referred to as the "Wild Hunt Challenge" by those running it, it took place on Halloween and involved participants walking around a local area of woodland in the daytime, and then repeating that task as a timed competition at night, "to gain mastery over an area of Gwyn ap Nudd's hunting ground". If completed successfully, it
8960-448: The male figure who appeared in it was a survival of folk beliefs about the god Wodan who had "lost his sociable character, his near familiar features, and assumed the aspect of a dark and dreadful power... a specter and a devil." Grimm believed that this male figure was sometimes replaced by a female counterpart, whom he referred to as Holda and Berchta . In his words, "not only Wuotan and other gods, but heathen goddesses too, may head
9072-607: The motif abounds "above all in areas of Germanic speech." Grimm popularised the term Wilde Jagd ('Wild Hunt') for the phenomenon. Based on the comparative study of the German folklore , the phenomenon is often referred to as Wilde Jagd ( German : 'Wild Hunt/chase') or Wütendes Heer ('Raging Host/army'). The term 'Hunt' was more common in northern Germany and 'Host' was more used in Southern Germany ; with however no clear dividing line since parts of southern Germany know
9184-465: The myth-ritual theory, myth is tied to ritual. In its most extreme form, this theory claims myths arose to explain rituals. This claim was first put forward by Smith , who argued that people begin performing rituals for reasons not related to myth. Forgetting the original reason for a ritual, they account for it by inventing a myth and claiming the ritual commemorates the events described in that myth. James George Frazer —author of The Golden Bough ,
9296-583: The mythical age. For example, it might reenact the healing performed by a god at the beginning of time in order to heal someone in the present. Similarly, Barthes argued that modern culture explores religious experience. Since it is not the job of science to define human morality, a religious experience is an attempt to connect with a perceived moral past, which is in contrast with the technological present. Pattanaik defines mythology as "the subjective truth of people communicated through stories, symbols and rituals." He says, "Facts are everybody's truth. Fiction
9408-430: The myths of multiple cultures. In some cases, comparative mythologists use the similarities between separate mythologies to argue that those mythologies have a common source. This source may inspire myths or provide a common "protomythology" that diverged into the mythologies of each culture. A number of commentators have argued that myths function to form and shape society and social behaviour. Eliade argued that one of
9520-553: The narrative may be understood as true or otherwise. Among biblical scholars of both the Old and New Testament, the word "myth" has a technical meaning, in that it usually refers to "describe the actions of the other‐worldly in terms of this world" such as the Creation and the Fall. Since "myth" is popularly used to describe stories that are not objectively true , the identification of a narrative as
9632-712: The night the monks heard them sounding and winding their horns. Reliable witnesses were said to have given the number of huntsmen as twenty or thirty, and it is said, in effect, that this went on for nine weeks, ending at Easter. Orderic Vitalis (1075–c. 1142), an English monk cloistered at St Evroul-en-Ouche , in Normandy , reported a similar cavalcade seen in January 1091, which he said were "Herlechin's troop" ( familia Herlechini ; cf. Harlequin ). While these earlier reports of Wild Hunts were recorded by clerics and portrayed as diabolic, in late medieval romances, such as Sir Orfeo ,
9744-450: The presence of the dead in the world of the living. In Asturias it's prominently well-known as Güestia , which is related to the Asturian word "güeste" (host in English language). Although many different versions of the Santa Compaña can be found, the common belief is that of a procession of the dead (or a procession of souls that are in torment) that wander through the village paths of
9856-409: The procession to carry the cross or the cauldron (or both), as the curse will be passed onto that person. It is said that if the curse leader does not pass the curse onto another person in a matter of weeks, he/she will eventually grow pale, thin and sickly and eventually die, following which the curse will be unknowingly passed onto another parishioner. To avoid receiving the curse, the person who sees
9968-478: The rationalization of myths, putting themes formerly imbued with mythological qualities into pragmatic contexts. An example of this would be following a cultural or religious paradigm shift (notably the re-interpretation of pagan mythology following Christianization ). Interest in polytheistic mythology revived during the Renaissance , with early works of mythography appearing in the sixteenth century, among them
10080-535: The real world. He is associated with the idea that myths such as origin stories might provide a "mythic charter"—a legitimisation—for cultural norms and social institutions . Thus, following the Structuralist Era ( c. 1960s –1980s), the predominant anthropological and sociological approaches to myth increasingly treated myth as a form of narrative that can be studied, interpreted, and analyzed like ideology, history, and culture. In other words, myth
10192-464: The sick instead of chrism. In other versions, it is believed that they are people with special sensibilities who are able to see hidden things. Some people are unable to see the souls in the procession but can see the light of their candles, floating in the air like ignis fatuus or will-o'-the-wisp (similar to the "spook lights" in the rural USA or "jack o'lantern" in the rural UK) as they move along their path. It may be related to Odin 's Wild Hunt , or
10304-421: The symbolic interpretation of traditional and Orphic myths. Mythological themes were consciously employed in literature, beginning with Homer . The resulting work may expressly refer to a mythological background without itself becoming part of a body of myths ( Cupid and Psyche ). Medieval romance in particular plays with this process of turning myth into literature. Euhemerism , as stated earlier, refers to
10416-471: The tales associate the hunter with a dragon or the devil. The lone hunter ( der Wilde Jäger ) is most often riding a horse, seldom a horse-drawn carriage, and usually has several hounds in his company. If the prey is mentioned, it is most often a young woman, either guilty or innocent. Gottfried August Bürger 's ballad Der wilde Jäger describes the fate of a nobleman who dares to hunt on the Sabbath and finds both
10528-464: The term "myth" altogether for purposes of avoiding placing pejorative overtones on sacred narratives. In present use, "mythology" usually refers to the collection of myths of a group of people. For example, Greek mythology , Roman mythology , Celtic mythology and Hittite mythology all describe the body of myths retold among those cultures. "Mythology" can also refer to the study of myths and mythologies. The compilation or description of myths
10640-483: The variant – polystratic; an Erzählstoff in which transcending interpretations of what can be experienced are combined into a hyleme sequence with an implicit claim to relevance for the interpretation and mastering of the human condition." Scholars in other fields use the term "myth" in varied ways. In a broad sense, the word can refer to any traditional story , popular misconception or imaginary entity. Though myth and other folklore genres may overlap, myth
10752-415: The very front of Oskoreia rides Guro Rysserova ('Gudrun Horsetail'), often called Guro Åsgard , who is "big and horrid, her horse black and called Skokse (...)" There is disagreement about the etymology of the word oskorei . The first element has several proposed sources: Åsgård (' Asgard '), oska ('thunder'), or Old Norse ǫskurligr ('dreadful'). The hypothetical Ásgoðreið ('Æsir God Ride')
10864-417: The war for which they, so to speak, give license to mankind." Grimm believed that in pre-Christian Europe, the hunt, led by a god and a goddess, either visited "the land at some holy tide, bringing welfare and blessing, accepting gifts and offerings of the people" or they alternately float "unseen through the air, perceptible in cloudy shapes, in the roar and howl of the winds, carrying on war , hunting or
10976-739: The winds. Herodotus (fifth-century BCE) and Prodicus made claims of this kind. This theory is named euhemerism after mythologist Euhemerus ( c. 320 BCE ), who suggested that Greek gods developed from legends about humans. Some theories propose that myths began as allegories for natural phenomena: Apollo represents the sun, Poseidon represents water, and so on. According to another theory, myths began as allegories for philosophical or spiritual concepts: Athena represents wise judgment, Aphrodite romantic desire, and so on. Müller supported an allegorical theory of myth. He believed myths began as allegorical descriptions of nature and gradually came to be interpreted literally. For example,
11088-405: The word mȳthos with the suffix - λογία ( -logia , 'study') in order to mean 'romance, fiction, story-telling.' Accordingly, Plato used mythología as a general term for 'fiction' or 'story-telling' of any kind. In Anglicised form, this Greek word began to be used in English (and was likewise adapted into other European languages) in the early 19th century, in a much narrower sense, as
11200-578: The world had not achieved its later form. Origin myths explain how a society's customs , institutions , and taboos were established and sanctified. National myths are narratives about a nation's past that symbolize the nation's values. There is a complex relationship between recital of myths and the enactment of rituals . The word "myth" comes from Ancient Greek μῦθος ( mȳthos ), meaning 'speech, narrative, fiction, myth, plot'. In turn, Ancient Greek μυθολογία ( mythología , 'story', 'lore', 'legends', or 'the telling of stories') combines
11312-545: Was "a powerful and well-established international scholarly tradition" which argued that the medieval Wild Hunt legends were an influence on the development of the early modern ideas of the Witches' Sabbath . Hutton nevertheless believed that this approach could be "fundamentally challenged". Lotte Motz noted that the motif is found "above all in areas of Germanic speech." While found in areas once settled by Celts, these legends are told less frequently and they are not encountered in
11424-528: Was also believed that people's spirits could be pulled away during their sleep to join the cavalcade. The concept was developed by Jacob Grimm in his Deutsche Mythologie (1835) on the basis of comparative mythology . Grimm believed that a group of stories represented a folkloristic survival of Germanic paganism , but this is disputed by other, modern scholars who claim that comparable folk myths are found throughout Northern Europe , Western Europe , and Central Europe . Lotte Motz noted, however, that
11536-514: Was also once proposed. Only the second element, rei ('ride') from Old Norse reið , is uncontroversial. The word was popularly perceived to be connected to Asgard, as seen in the folk ballad of Sigurd Svein, who is taken to Asgard by Oskoreia and Guro Rysserova . In the Netherlands and Flanders (in northern Belgium ), the Wild Hunt is known as the Buckriders (Dutch: Bokkenrijders) and
11648-1029: Was central to the " myth and ritual " school of thought. According to Frazer, humans begin with an unfounded belief in impersonal magical laws. When they realize applications of these laws do not work, they give up their belief in natural law in favor of a belief in personal gods controlling nature, thus giving rise to religious myths. Meanwhile, humans continue practicing formerly magical rituals through force of habit, reinterpreting them as reenactments of mythical events. Finally, humans come to realize nature follows natural laws, and they discover their true nature through science. Here again, science makes myth obsolete as humans progress "from magic through religion to science." Segal asserted that by pitting mythical thought against modern scientific thought, such theories imply modern humans must abandon myth. The earlier 20th century saw major work developing psychoanalytical approaches to interpreting myth, led by Sigmund Freud , who, drawing inspiration from Classical myth, began developing
11760-568: Was held that the participant had gained the trust of the wood's spirits, and they would be permitted to cut timber from its trees with which to make a staff. The anthropologist Rachel Morgain reported a "ritual recreation" of the Wild Hunt among the Reclaiming tradition of Wicca in San Francisco . The Åsgårdsreien , Peter Nicolai Arbo 's 1872 oil painting, depicts the Scandinavian version of
11872-484: Was hunting the kiln would be ablaze. One tradition maintains that Odin did not travel further up than an ox wears his yoke, so if Odin was hunting, it was safest to throw oneself onto the ground in order to avoid being hit, a pourquoi story that evolved as an explanation for the popular belief that persons lying at ground level are safer from lightning strikes than are persons who are standing. In Älghult in Småland, it
11984-618: Was primarily concerned with the natural world. It tended to interpret myths that seemed distasteful to European Victorians —such as tales about sex, incest, or cannibalism—as metaphors for natural phenomena like agricultural fertility . Unable to conceive impersonal natural laws, early humans tried to explain natural phenomena by attributing souls to inanimate objects, thus giving rise to animism . According to Tylor, human thought evolved through stages, starting with mythological ideas and gradually progressing to scientific ideas. Müller also saw myth as originating from language, even calling myth
12096-523: Was profoundly shaped by emerging ideas about evolution . These ideas included the recognition that many Eurasian languages—and therefore, conceivably, stories—were all descended from a lost common ancestor (the Indo-European language ) which could rationally be reconstructed through the comparison of its descendant languages. They also included the idea that cultures might evolve in ways comparable to species. In general, 19th-century theories framed myth as
12208-516: Was referred to as Odens jakt ( Odin's hunt ) and Oskoreia (from Asgårdsreien – the Asgard Ride ). Odin's hunt was heard but rarely seen, and a typical trait is that one of Odin's dogs was barking louder and a second one fainter. Besides one or two shots, these barks were the only sounds that were clearly identified. When Odin's hunt was heard, it meant changing weather in many regions, but it could also mean war and unrest. According to some reports,
12320-480: Was safest to carry a piece of bread and a piece of steel when going to church and back during Yule . The reason was that if one met the rider with the broad-rimmed hat, one should throw the piece of steel in front of oneself, but if one met his dogs first, one should throw the pieces of bread instead. In the Peterborough Chronicle , there is an account of the Wild Hunt's appearance at night, beginning with
12432-532: Was then adopted in Middle French as mythologie . Whether from French or Latin usage, English adopted the word "mythology" in the 15th century, initially meaning 'the exposition of a myth or myths', 'the interpretation of fables', or 'a book of such expositions'. The word is first attested in John Lydgate 's Troy Book ( c. 1425 ). From Lydgate until the 17th or 18th century, "mythology" meant
12544-411: Was used by gangs of highwaymen for their advantage in the 18th century. In Welsh folklore, Gwyn ap Nudd was depicted as a wild huntsman riding a demon horse who hunts souls at night along with a pack of white-bodied and red-eared "dogs of hell". In Arthurian legends, he is the king of the underworld who makes sure that the imprisoned devils do not destroy human souls. A comparable Welsh folk myth
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